Walthamstow

When Pastor Anthony  joined Emmanuel Christian Centre in Walthamstow in 2001 it was on the cusp of a massive change.

Since then its youth programme Spark2Life has been recognised by the police and the local council and the church has begun spending up to £40,000 per year on missions. This has included sending people with practical skills like builders and plasterers to work on mission projects as well as sponsoring short term missions.

The church is also connected with wider initiatives for the homeless, the elderly, a nursery and organisations which help young people who have been excluded from school or who are in need of supplementary education.

Pastor Anthony said: “When I joined all of our attention was inward looking. We were dealing with people who liked to hear a sermon and then go home. We took a real look at ourselves and our major challenge was how to take a large faith community, a preaching centre, and turn that into a centre for community activity. The last seven years have been the beginning of a journey involving building a new culture to help people relate to the importance of social transformation.

“We had a dream of an auditorium which would seat 1,000 people and we had to decide whether to keep asking for that or switch our priorities and say it was more important to serve the community.”

While the auditorium is still part of the church’s vision, the team at ECC opted to spend £700,000 on a building more suited to serving the community.  That building has been refurbished and is now thought to be worth more than £1,000,000. The church has also employed a project developer to explore ways they can do more in the community. In the last year it has launched six new projects which are more mission focussed than discipleship oriented.

It now boasts the strapline: “Loving God Passionately, Building Church Biblically, Serving the Community Passionately.”